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Two
hundred years ago there appeared in the
horizon of the Indian Church a star luminous
and extra ordinary. Centuries cannot leave
into oblivion thoughts of such rare pearls
that appeared on this earth and left this
earthly sojourn after illuminating an entire
era and area. Such a bright star of India
was Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara of
joyful memories. The Church in India
rejoices today as the Bi-centenary year of
his birth has been launched on
3rd January 2004, by His Eminence Cardinal Varkey
Vithayathil, along with 10 Bishops, 150
Priests, 600 Sisters and about 10,000
devotees at Mannanam, near Kottayam, where
his mortal remains are enshrined.
Chavara:
Pioneer of Religious Life in India
 The 300
odd Religious Congregations of India and
about 95,000 members in them today must be
grateful to this great luminary of religious
life in the Indian Church. In 1831, when
there existed no Indian religious
congregation in this land, Blessed Chavara
along with two other diocesan priests, Fr.
Thomas Palackal and Fr. Thomas Porukara,
founded the now-existing first Religious
Congregation of India. That is the CMI
Congregation. In 1866, by the cooperative
effort of B. Chavara and Fr. Leopold Beccaro,
an Italian Carmelite Missionary priest, the
now-existing first religious society for
women in the Syro-Malabar Church was
founded. That is the CMC congregation.
Today it has a membership of more than 6000
Sisters. These two religious congregations
later in the 20th century inspired the
emergence of so many religious congregations
for men and women in the Indian Church.
Blessed
Chavara was luminant and unique not only in
the religious field. His contributions in
the ecclesial and socio-cultural levels
remain ever remarkable.
A Man of Ecclesial Vision
The Syro-Malabar
Church is indebted to Bl. Chavara because it
was he who protected it at a crucial and
decisive movement of its in the turbulent
history of this 19 century-old Church in
India. He saved it from a terrific
schismatic threat called the Roccosian
schism. He was also the Vicar General of
this Church at that time.
It was
also Bl. Chavara and his confreres who
imparted greater vitality to this Church by
introducing several innovations into its
rank and file. Being motivated by a
deep-rooted love for the Church, he received
inspiration and adopted several devotional
practices from the global Church. Some of
them are introducing retreat preaching for
the laity in all parishes, the Way of the
Cross, the Rosary, codification of the
canonical prayers of Priests, and a
systematic Seminary formation for the future
Priests. He believed that if only efficient
and holy Priests are trained, the faith of
our people and their sacramental life could
be sustained. Bl. Chavara and his companions
were entrusted with this great task by the
then Church authorities. The Seminary
established at Mannanam in 1831 saw to the
training of not only the CMIs but also of
the diocesan seminarians for more than half
a century. There was a time when 150
seminarians lived there at a time.
He
introduced the Eucharistic devotion,
especially though the 40 hour adoration.
The present elderly generation of the Kerala
church still cherishes the sweet memories of
this devotional practice which imparted the
faithful great spiritual experience. People
used to flock the various Ashram Churches
where this devotion was practiced.
Similarly, the Way of the Cross
introduced by him became very popular. It’s
solemn recitation, especially on the Fridays
of the Lent, ascending hilly and hard
terrains, imitating the last journey of
Jesus to Calvary, elevated the minds of our
faithful to greater heights of life touching
and life-transforming experiences.
Blessed
Chavara loved the Church and the Church also
loved him. He earnestly desired that the
Church should not merely remain as a
preservative and static container of the
faith brought to
India
by St. Thomas the Apostle of Jesus. He
visualized that this Church must become
active in faith expressions, vibrant in
spirituality; and dynamic in witnessing to
and propagating the same to other people.
Champion of social reformation
Blessed
Chavara is a luminary not only in the
spiritual and ecclesial levels. He was also
one of the topmost social reformers India
has even seen. Imagine the socio-cultural
situation of Kerala just two centuries ago.
It was a place with practically no literacy
and systematic educational systems. There
existed radical casteism triggering inhuman
discriminations. He visualized a society
when all people can live in the joy of the
children of God, enjoying equality, freedom
and prosperity.
The
basic vision of Bl. Chavara for brightening
up the society started with the idea of
imparting literacy to our people. He firmly
believed that a society could make progress
only through knowledge and wisdom.
Education is the central factor for any
basic development. He established at
Mannanam the first Catholic
school
of Kerala in 1846. That school is the mother
of all private educational institutions in
the Catholic sector in Kerala. He started
that tiny little centre of learning as a
Sanskrit school. It also was indicative of
his far-reacting vision. At that time, only
high caste people were allowed to learn
Sanskrit the Vedic language. Other people
were not only prohibited from learning that
language but also prevented from going to
any learning at all. Bl. Chavara opened the
portals of his school, and all the other
schools established by his followers in
other places, to all people irrespective of
caste and creed. Later, his decisive order
in 1861 added to this great momentum. His
radical vision of education motivated him to
issue an important order when he became the
Vicar General of the Syrians in 1861. He
ordered all Churches to open schools
adjacent to them compulsorily. This order
became the magna carta for a
revolutionary paradigm shift in the
socio-cultural development of Kerala. If the
Kerala society is topping the list of
literacy in this land today, and making
great advancement in the fields of science,
technology and inter-national service
through incessant migration, it should be
indebted to this great visionary called Bl.
Chavara.
Bl.
Chavara is also the champion of printing and
publications in the Kerala Church. He
established the first printing press at
Mannanam in 1844 and from there emerged many
books for the enrichment of our people.
Later in 1887, Mannanam saw the inception of
the newspaper DEEPIKA, the first
Catholic Daily of India.
Blessed
Chavara also believed that the health and
strength of the society depends not only the
growth of the people in general. It depends
greatly on how the society takes care of the
weak, the disabled, the sick and the aged
members of the society. In view of caring
for them, it was Bl. Chavara who founded the
first ‘Charitable institution’ in
Kerala. It was in Kainakari in the year
1869.
When Bl.
Chavara took the initiative to start the
first religious congregation for women in
India
in 1866, namely the CMC Congregation, he had
also a far-reaching social mission in his
mind. Well-trained and well-motivated
religious women must come forward as the
catalytic agents for social reformation from
the grass-root level. He thought, these
women should enter the field of family
apostolate, motivating our families to enter
the path of progress in every level.
Chavara the bridge-builder
Blessed
Chavara was a bridge-builder, especially
between the Latin and the Syrian Churches,
between the global and the local Churches.
His own Guru Fr. Thomas Palackal had
introduced him to the rich religious ethos
and the spiritual granaries of the universal
Church during his seminary days and later by
his spiritual director Fr. Leopold Beccaro,
OCD. Chavara had been also impressed by the
depth and richness of the Indian
spirituality propounded by our enlightened
Sages of ancient times. May be his knowledge
of Sanskrit and the Indian genius prompted
him to start the first religious House in
Mannanam by the name Darsana Veedu
(House of divine vision). What is reflected
in the vision of Blessed Chavara is an
integration of the East and the West,
probing and throbbing beyond the boundaries
of the Rites and diversities of cultures.
This vision of Blessed Chavara resembles the
great Indian vision expressed in the Rig
Vedic dictum, Ano Bhadra Kratavo Yanthu
Viswatah (Rig Veda I.89.i), which means,
let noble thoughts enter our land from
anywhere in the world. Indeed, Blessed
Chavara will be considered by historians as
a great bridge-builder and a man of integral
vision.
Basically a man of God
Blessed
Chavara was a man of action throughout his
life. His was a multifaceted personality
with great vibrancy and efficiency. Within
the span of less than half a century, he
triggered innovations which ordinary humans
could do in centuries. However, the central
feature behind his marvellous success can be
sourced back to his radical spiritual
vision. That was his basic darsan and
his close affinity with the divine. His
commitment to God was radical. The ultimate
source of his power was prayer. His prayer
life was constant and consistent. He used
to pray hours before the Blessed Sacrament
shedding tears. It was from here that he
learned the lessons of holiness. Receiving
power and inspiration from his Master Jesus,
he sanctified himself. In him we find a
perfect integration of a Jnana Yogi,
Karma Yogi, and a Bhakti Yogi. The
power he received from this basic
integration of wisdom and action with
commitment to God, in turn, sanctified and
enriched the whole Church and the society.
Recognizing the personal sanctity of Fr.
Kuriakose Elias Chavara, the Church elevated
him to the ranks of Blessed’s in 1986. The
Government of India also acknowledged his
great services towards social reformations
and released a commemorative postal stamp in
1987. The Jayanthi year celebrated
in the year 2004-05 was made a golden time
to make deeper studies and extensive
researches on the vast and significant
contributions of this precious pearl of
India. |
